


Sleep to Dream

by catsmiaow



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, Long Shot, Reno's cursing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 03:30:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17459789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsmiaow/pseuds/catsmiaow
Summary: One of them is in a coma, sent there by an assassination attempt, but the question is who.





	1. The start

_"Where the fuck were you, Rod? You were supposed to be up in the balconies checking for shooters. Rude and I swept that balcony an hour ago, and there wasn't jackshit there."_

_"I don't know! Reno, you gotta believe me that it wasn't my fault! I went through that middle balcony, and the only people there were Reeve Tuesti and some of his WRO people. Ask Strife if you don't believe me! All of them were on the safe-list. I checked and double-checked with Tseng just to make sure!"_

_"Reno, let go of him right now. Strangling a fellow Turk barehanded isn't going to help us or the President. We need to find out who did this, what chemical that -"_

The whispering voices were on the edges of his consciousness, barely heard and easy to ignore. It was much better to dismiss them since their fractured words made little sense. Later he would speak to one of the doctors and find out if any of the others who had been cured of Geostigma were suffering from mild auditory hallucinations. Rufus Shinra adjusted his tie and reached for his longcoat. Across from him, Reno sat lounging in one of his chairs, EMR tapping against his leg.

"Something wrong, Boss?"

Rufus frowned at the man, shaking his head impatiently. "Of course not. I dislike these PR events. I do wish Tuesti would get it through his head that having the President of Shin-Ra address the masses in support of the World Regenesis Order isn't the best thing at this stage. Some of the conversions from Mako to electricity are leading to minor outages, and as usual, people are blaming Shin-Ra. They seem to forget that we are doing this for free and with limited technical know-how. Retraining workers to go through and completely rip out old power systems and install new ones in every home in Edge as well as all the plants is not a snap of the fingers action. I take it the limo is here, and we're ready?"

With a deceptively lazy sounding yawn, Reno got to his feet. "Tseng said they've already swept the auditorium. He and Elena are going to be assigned as your sideguards. Rude and I will do one more look-see around the balconies and then head into the crowds on the lower level. Rod and Erik will be taking over the balconies then."

"No thug actions, Reno, and I mean it. We need to step lightly for a time. Should something need done, take it elsewhere," Rufus said, settling his coat around his shoulders and checking his own weapons.

Turning to remind Reno yet again that this meant if there was a potential threat in the crowd not to break their kneecaps right there in front of everyone, Rufus' thoughts flew to pieces when lips touched against his own. Before his brain could kick into gear for him to do something, anything, Reno was giving him an impish grin and heading out the door. All he could do was stare stupidly at the Turk standing out in the hall talking to Rod and Erik, his own fingertips rising to touch where that hit-and-run kiss had. Had he just imagined that?

Lowering his hand, Rufus frowned to himself. For a moment there, it had felt as if someone else was tracing his lips as well, a cool fingertip that was gentle. Shaking it off, he joined the others in the hallway. He didn't have time for this. Listening to what they were saying about security for the trip and speech, Rufus ignored the voice that whispered words he could just barely understand but made no sense.

_"Should this coma persist, we may lose him. You should be prepared for that eventuality."_


	2. It's His Job

_"Anything?"_

_"Nothing."_

_"I expect him to be found tonight, Reno. Elena will be here tonight, so that leaves yourself and Rude free. We four are in rotating shifts of six hours in here with two others outside at all times."_

_"I'll get him. Trust me. Little fucker can't hide out in the slums. He ran there early this morning and has been lying low. Rude and I will have him by tonight."_

"Boss? You okay?"

Rufus jerked out of his fugue. The metal railing was cold under his hand, his gaze darting around. "What?"

Reno frowned. They had been headed up the stairs to the helipad when Rufus had blanked out on him, going stock still and just standing there like a toy with its batteries pulled. "We're heading to Junon on your father's orders. Fuck, you didn't take any of that shit for airsickness from Hojo, did you? Tseng is going to shit a brick! What did we tell you about getting anything from Medical without one of us looking it over first?"

Rufus pressed a hand to his forehead, trying to remember how he got here and what was going on. He wasn't the Vice President headed to Junon. He was the President. Wasn't he? "Reno, I don't... I'm not..."

"Ah shit."

Reno headed down the few stairs separating them. His hands pressed on either side of Rufus' face, feeling for signs of a fever. "What's wrong with you? What did he give you?"

"Nothing. I didn't take anything." Rufus' head bowed, a hand pressing against his forehead. What had he been thinking? Of course he was the Vice President. They had to fly to Junon and oversee the base there. They had been planning it for weeks, Tseng feeling it best to get him out of Midgar after the AVALANCHE disaster, somewhere safer needed incase his father found out about the failed assassination plot. He barely felt it when Reno's arms slid around him in an embrace, his own hands dropping away as his forehead settled on the Turk's shoulder. He could have stayed like this, relaxed in this safety.

"We gotta get you out of Midgar, kid. It's too hot here right now. Too many accidents could happen. You okay?" Those whispered words ended with a soft nip to his ear, fingers carding gently through his hair.

Hearing the concern in Reno's voice nearly made him laugh. Reno was never worried. Then again, Rufus had just tried to have his father killed, and if he went down, the Turks would go down with him. It wasn't concern for his safety he was hearing in Reno's voice, but the Turk's worry for himself and his compatriots. They were afraid they had backed a losing chocobo in this race. Making himself straighten up, Rufus nodded. "I'm fine. Let's go."

Reno stepped back, giving Rufus one more up and down look before heading back up the stairs. He pushed open the door, puzzled at first by the sound of a helicopter already up in the air.

Gunfire tore through the air. Hovering at the side of the Shin-Ra building was another helicopter, its side facing the now open door leading onto the helipad. Poked out of its side like a tumour was the barrel of a machine gun. In one quick motion, Reno kicked the door shut and grabbed Rufus, forcing the Vice President to the floor with himself draped over him. The _ping-ping-ping_ of bullets cutting through the door and wall echoed in the stairwell, the occasional _zip-whine_ of a ricochet joining in the fun.

Rufus tried to make himself as flat as he could under Reno, half-wanting to tell the Turk that he was suffocating him. Black gloved hands were tight in his hair, forcing his cheek against the metal floor, his eyes only able to see the far wall. Reno's own head was against the back of his own. An arm was pressed tightly against the top of his head, forcing Rufus to stay down. Reno was screaming into the mike on his lapel, trying to be heard over the background noise. "Get someone to the rooftop! We've got a gunship out there firing on us!"

More bullets pounded against the door and wall, Reno had stop yelling, his body tightening around Rufus' own to protect him from the deadly hail. The door at the bottom of the stairs was kicked open, another bang among the rest. Rufus saw Rude's face, lips thinned down but otherwise impassive as ever. The next thing he knew, the Turk was seizing his arm and dragging him out from under Reno, pulling him down the stairs in a low crouch until they were at the lower door. "Get the Vice President to Medical now," he told the other armed Turk waiting at the doorway.

Rufus had been about to snap at Rude that he was fine and for Reno to join them when something that felt like slime slid down his cheek. Touching it, he felt nothing but stupefied surprise when he saw the amount of blood on his fingers. More of those sinister trails began to drip from his hair, sticky and cool. Staring at the blood across his fingers, he let Rude jerk his long white coat off him, the Turk's fingers pressing against his back looking for an injury. That dumb shock kept him stunned as he realized that his formerly pristine coat had a long scarlet streak down the back. "It's not me. I'm not hit. It's..."

He would have run back up those stairs into the hail of bullets to the unmoving body at the top if Rude hadn't grabbed him in an iron grip and literally shoved him into the other Turk's grasp. He tried to fight them until Rude spoke.

"He's a Turk. It's his job to die for you."

From somewhere far off, Rufus could hear a steady blaring monotone sound. All the colours in the world started to wash out, vision going dim.

_"What the fuck is wrong!"_   
_"Sir, you need to move. Get me a t-PA! He's going into cardiac arrest!"_   
_"Get these people out of here, now! I don't care who they are."_   
_"He's flat lining."_


	3. Every Single Step of the Way

_"You have to wake up. You didn't let Geostigma beat you, and you can't let this. You'd better be fighting this every step of the way, Rufus. Every step of the way. You have..."_

"...to wake up now."

Rufus opened his eyes and yawned, peering at the face looming over him. "Morning, Maria!"

The nanny didn't return his tentative smile, pulling back the covers and shooing him out of bed. "Mister Veld is out there waiting for you. Why didn't you get up when your alarm clock went off? What did your father tell you about laziness? Hurry, hurry! Get your shower and get into your clothes! Monroe left them in the bathroom for you. You bad child!"

Rufus Shinra rolled out of bed, scratching a hand through his hair sleepily as he peered at his four year old self in the mirror. A quick swat to his bottom by a nanny more scared of the Head Turk standing in the living room than President Shinra's anger at someone striking his only son sent him running for the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later, Rufus' small nose was pressed against the limo's window, peering out at the snow falling and people hurrying on the sidewalk. 

"Rufus, sit down and fasten your belt," Veld said, watching the child with a critical eye. 

Rufus sighed in the way only a bored four year old could as he slumped down in his seat, sitting up a moment later as the Head Turk cocked a brow at him for such. The child's outfit wasn't anything like a normal kid's would have been, instead being a near copy of the Turk uniform right down to the tie. "Where we goin' today?"

"You mean 'where are we going', and we are going to one of the new Mako reactors. Your father feels that it is important for you to see what Shin-Ra is built on," Veld replied, glancing up to make sure that the child had indeed strapped himself in before going back to reading over the reports in his lap.

"'M bored, Veld. Can't we go someplace fun?" Rufus asked, a whine creeping into his voice against his will. He knew how important it was that he didn't turn into a brat. Enough of Father's friends had children like that according to the lectures Rufus got during his deportment lessons.

"Language, Rufus. Someday people will come from all over the planet to hear you speak. It's important that you learn the inner workings of the company, how it runs and so on."

Rufus nose wrinkled again, his eyes going to the window. "Why didn't Sabra or Lorelei take me? They's... they are the ones who usually do. You're the Head of the Investigation Div... Div... the Turks. Why're you with me?"

Veld merely grunted, flipping another page.

"Is it 'cause of what my father was talking about? That Wutian group saying they were gonna shoot me?" 

Veld looked up from the papers, startled to hear such a hard and ugly truth out of the mouth of a child. Rufus had turned to face the man, not caring about the words he said but what expression was on Veld's face. He'd listened to his father talk all the time about how people lie constantly but that their eyes tell the truth. While Rufus wasn't sure if that was true or not, too young to really know what he was looking for that would tell him truth or lie, he did meet the Turk's gaze with his chin up and eyes hard.

Setting his paperwork aside, Veld leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. His scarred face was serious as he nodded slowly. "It is indeed. I felt you safer with me than with Lorelei, Sabra, or any of the others today."

"Father and you were arguing last night with that creepy Hojo and horsey Heidegger."

Veld mouth drew in a tight line at that as he nodded again. "Yes, we were."

"You said you didn't wanna.... want me to go out today. That father was purposely makin' me a target so he wouldn't get shot. Is that why I don't have my white today?"

"Yes, it is. And while we are on the subject-" The small case Veld had been carrying with his was opened, a fedora the same colour as his dark suit taken out. Plunking it down on Rufus' head to cover that bright blonde hair, Veld nodded more to himself than Rufus. "You keep that on, down as far as you can."

"All right." With that, Rufus turned back to the window to watch the snow drift past as the limousine's windows. He missed the sharp and somehow regretful look Veld watched him with.

Keeping up with Veld's long legged stride wasn't easy for a child. Rufus refused to hold the other's hand or anything else that might signify that he was a little kid and needing help. He'd been told too many times to rely on himself and not need others. The whistle of shift-change going off overheard startled him, sending him backing up a few paces. Masses of people poured out into the main hallway, going in all directions. The world was made up of nothing more than a sea of legs from Rufus' point of view, Veld suddenly gone. Rufus was pushed and jostled from all sides. 

"Veld! Veld!"

His own childish voice echoed back to him, everyone around him carrying on their conversations but no answer coming back to him from his guardian. When his back finally met the wall, Rufus fought back the tears trying to come. He was a big boy, a little man, and he didn't cry. Nothing made his father mad quicker than when he cried.

"Hey kid, you lost?"

Rufus pushed his hat back enough to stare up at the man that had spoken to him, lower lip trembling as he rubbed furiously at his eyes. He wasn't crying! The tall man that had spoken to him crouched down, fiery red hair spiked around the man's face, ending in a long tail that hung over one shoulder. Two bright red slashes were under the stranger's aquamarine eyes. At first look, Rufus wasn't sure if this was a man or woman.

"I'm not 'posed to talk to strangers," Rufus mumbled, pressing himself tighter against the wall, eyes flicking between this man and back to the crowd to search frantically for Veld.

Rich laughter came from the stranger as he lifted some sort of cylinder weapon, the Shin-Ra logo clear on the battered metal. "I'm not a stranger, kid."

Rufus stood up a little straighter, eyeing the man carefully. The shirt was untucked and he was missing his tie, two things Veld wouldn't have allowed as far as he knew. "Are you a Turk?"

The redhead grinned and the next thing Rufus knew he was being lifted up in the man's arms. "That I am, kiddo. Name's Reno."

"Let me go! Now!" Ever since he had been able to get up in bed himself, Rufus hadn't been held by anyone. Once upon a time he'd wanted to be, but by this point, he saw it as being treated like a little kid. "I'm not a baby! Put me down!"

Reno laughed again, warm and devoid of any mockery Rufus expected to hear. "Nothing doing. I put you down, and someone is going to step on you or snatch you up. You see who you're looking for up here?"

Rufus stared at the Turk coldly for a moment longer, expecting his demand to be put down immediately followed. When he wasn't and he figured out that squirming wasn't doing him any good, he turned away huffily and searched for Veld. It was as if the Head Turk had vanished without the puff of smoke like in his storybooks. He could feel those shameful tears trying to clog his nose again, hot and ugly. "No…"

A gentle hand touched on his back, rubbing in a small circle. Rufus' head snapped around, lips pulling back from his teeth in an unconscious snarl. The woman who was touching him merely smiled at him, still patting his back soothingly as if he needed comforted. Her blonde hair was too much like his, cut around her face. Another gentle touch was at his right shoulder, a man that seemed massive to Rufus' eyes. Behind the shield of the sunglasses this one wore, Rufus couldn't tell if he was intimidated by the Shinra heir's apparent fury or not. When another hand settled on his left arm, Rufus was ready to bite someone if necessary to keep them at bay. Calm black eyes stared back at him from this stranger, his Turk uniform as impeccable as Veld's. 

Fingers tenderly settled on his chin, turning him back to Reno. The Turk was still grinning at him. "Don't worry about it. You're safe. We wouldn't let you down."

Rufus squirmed, trying to get down even as this Reno person refused to give an inch. "Let go! I'm a man! I don't need any of you! I'm not weak!"

Reno's forehead rested against Rufus' own, the hand on his chin not letting him jerk his head away. "It's not about weakness, kid. We're here for you. We always will be, whether you like it or not. We're not leaving you. Just don't you go and try to leave us."

A soft kiss was pressed to Rufus' forehead. His little fingers tangled in that long tail of Reno's hair, about to pull it to gain his freedom when the tenderness of that touch stopped him. Who had been the last person to touch him that kindly? Rufus couldn't remember. The two sets of hands touching his shoulder tightened in a light squeeze before dropping away. The woman at his back made another circle before she was gone as well. When Rufus drew back to blink at Reno, he realized he was back on his feet. 

"Rufus!"

Veld's hands were hard and panicky on his shoulders, the Turk's sharp eyes looking him over for any sign of injury. 

"I'm fine," Rufus told him distractedly, his eyes moving over the faces of those above him. There was no flash of bright crimson, no one wearing sunglasses, no blonde woman with sharp eyes, or a Wutian among the workers.

Veld shook him hard enough that his teeth rattled, Rufus realizing for the first time that he had managed to scare the Director. "Don't ever do that again."

"I won't."

Letting his hand be held, Rufus followed Veld easily enough. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a Cheshire cat grin, a twinkle of light on an electromagnetic rod with the Shin-Ra symbol as the man raised it in a salute. As he and Veld headed down the stairs, he saw a man above them like a sentry, a fingertip pushing his sunglasses up further. A blonde woman held the door open for him and Veld, she giving him a wink as they passed. No one else but Rufus noticed the Wutian that moved through the crowd of workers to shadow them, odd considering that Shin-Ra was at war with that nation.

Rufus looked up to Veld, wanting to ask him these questions and decided not to. He knew the answer already even if his child's mind couldn't put it into words. 

They stopped in front of the doors to the main conference room, Veld looking over the Shinra heir to make sure he was presentable. "What's that in your hand, Rufus?"

Opening his hand, as surprised as Veld was. Resting against his palm were a few strands of bright red hair, the same shade as the long tail of Reno's hair that Rufus had been clutching earlier. Everything began to fade away then.

_"Don't give up, Boss. We never gave up on you. Don't let it beat you."_


	4. Until I Die He Will Not Leave My Side

_It was a woman's voice he heard this time, reading from a book given the monotone sound._

_"It was Herb Caen that said it best with 'I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there'."_

 

It was cold and crisp up here. Below the city was spread out like a handful of metal and grey boxes thrown carelessly across a dirty and moldy blanket. At night it had a jewel-like quality to it once the lingering smog from the factories had been pushed away by the wind, but right now, it was less than beautiful.

Legs hanging over the edge, he could see the tiny people scurrying on the sidewalks below. Being twenty stories up reduced all of the city's humanity to nothing more than scurrying insects. The ledge was big enough for him to sit on, but just barely. Despite the height and the roughly seven inch wide seat, Rufus Shinra didn't look worried in the least. 

Reno, on the other hand, was plastered up against the building, scrabbling at the brick for any sort of handhold. Heights didn't scare him in the least. He flew a helicopter all the time, but the sight of Rufus just sitting there like it was nothing scared him for some reason. It kept running through his mind that he had to get someway to brace himself so he could make sure Rufus didn't fall. "Boss? How about we go in?"

"I don't think so. Not yet anyways, Reno. We need to talk." Just as cool as you please, Rufus slid a foot under himself and pushed to his feet. 

"Don't move! Just... just stay there. I'll get you," Reno muttered, feeling like his heart had jumped up in his throat. Rufus acted like they were sitting at a table in the boardroom, not far enough up that a twitch the wrong way would send them down. When the President had stood up, Reno had been sure he was going to topple over. Working his way towards Rufus inch by precious inch, his cheek never left the scratchy brick of the building's wall. Fear had him, but it didn't make any sense. If he'd been out here alone, he wouldn't be trying to press himself into the wall like this. He'd be careful, yes, but there wouldn't be any of this rabid fear. "Just don't move."

Rufus turned towards him smoothly. While his right foot rested on the ledge, his left was barely on there. 

"Rufus! Don't!"

Rufus shook his head slowly, walking along the ledge towards Reno easily. Each step taken without the slightest hesitation or worry about a misstep. When a foot separated them, he stopped. "Reno, this isn't real."

The wind howled around the building like a woman scorned, pulling at Reno's clothing. He clung tighter to the building, nails scrabbling for purchase where none were to be found. It dragged at Rufus' coat, the tail of it snapping like a whip. He could feel it pushing at him, wanting to send him over the edge. "Please… just please, Rufus. Don't move. I don't beg, and you know it, but I am now. Get back inside. There has to be a window around here somewhere."

Come to think of it, Reno didn't remember going out a window to get here. He didn't remember going up even stairs. How the fuck had he come to be on this ledge with his boss?

The President of Shinra sighed, raking a hand through his hair. For a painfully long moment for Reno, he wavered on the ledge as if about to go over. Reno could feel his own heels hanging off the edge, the loose grit on the ledge as slick as if it were ice.

"I'm not going to fall," Rufus told him with exaggerated patience. "I can't fall."

"What the fuck not? We're twenty stories up!"

Rufus smiled at him, a real smile the likes of which Reno had only seen three or so times before now. "We're in your mind, Reno. You would never let me fall."

The wind whistled again, trying to pry cold fingers between Reno and the wall, pressing against his ribs like a hand. "What?"

Rufus shook his head, shoving his hands into his pockets casually. Despite the cry of the wind, Reno could hear him easily. "You're asleep, Reno. In a coma to be exact. This isn't real. None of it. What do you smell?"

"Rufus... Sir..."

"Do it, Reno. That's an order. Take a breath and tell me what you smell."

He took a breath, as deep as he dared. What he expected to smell was the city itself or the last cigarette he'd smoked. It wasn't what he did. "I smell vanilla. Like a perfume. It's so strong I can taste it."

Rufus nodded, looking as pleased as a teacher that had gotten a reluctant student to learn a difficult concept. "That's Elena's new perfume. Vanilla Fields, if I remember rightly. None of what you're seeing is real. Your mind is making this all up, trying to keep the truth from you. We were at that foolish event of Tuesti's. Do you remember that?"

Reno nodded tightly, taking another shaky slide forward. It was all well and good for Rufus to stand up here talking about this not being real, but it felt real to him. His mind was trained to protect the President. Once they were inside, then they could hold this or any other conversation Rufus wanted. He was afraid because he was about to fall off this fucking building if a breeze caught him right. "Yeah, but…"

Another shriek of wind nearly sent him off the edge.

"You were hurt there, Reno. You're laying in a bed down in Shin-Ra medical. I knew you hated hospitals, so I had you moved there as soon as you were able to be. You're afraid, aren't you? Why should you be terrified? I've seen and often been with you flying in worse conditions than a little windstorm."

Reno shook his head, catching Rufus' words in snatches. The wind had cranked itself up to a full-out storm, the sky darkening. Him? That wasn't right. "It's not me, Rufus! It's you! You're the one in the coma. You were shot with a dart full of some chemical from Fireland."

Rain began to splatter them as Rufus took another step. This time his left foot missed the edge of the ledge. Reno reached a hand out, trying to catch part of the President's coat. There was no way he could brace himself. If Rufus went over, he was going over with him. Rufus hung there, balance precarious, not trying to save himself.

"It's a dream, Reno."

"It's not. Boss, don't fall, please."

"I can't fall. You have to wake up, Reno. You're dying. Do you really think you would ever stand there helpless if you suspected there was going to be an assassin in the crowd? The first shot missed me, and by that time you were already on the stage shoving me down. The second caught you in the shoulder."

Reno could feel the cloth between his fingers beginning to slip. The rain was making his hands slippery. "Rufus, you need to get against the wall. I'm losing my grip."

"I can't die, Reno. Not here. I'll prove it to you."

"Rufus."

"You have to understand."

For the first time, Reno realized that Rufus was wearing the bandages he had when afflicted with Geostigma. The loose tails of them waved, fluttering around him as if the President were being encased in a spider's silk. His hand brushed on Reno's that was clutching his coat. Reno could feel the ends crawling over his skin like something alive. "You're afraid. Why would heights scare you?"

"I'm afraid because you're going to kill us both or yourself! Help me, Rufus! Get against the wall. I can't hold onto you!"

"No, you can't."

With that, Rufus jerked his coat out of Reno's hand roughly and leaped off the ledge, a white falling star. His eyes stayed locked on Reno's own, no fear in them just that terrible patience. This time, there would be no Elena or Tseng to save him. 

The storm broke with a roar of thunder, the world going dark again.

_Her voice was clear still, sweeter this time although it still hung on the edge of his consciousness and seemed very far away._

_"No more may gulls cry at their ears_   
_Or waves break loud on the seashores;_   
_Where blew a flower may a flower no more_   
_Lift its head to the blows of the rain."_

_"That's fucking depressing, Elena. That some of his literary shit?"_

_"I found it in one of his desk drawers. You look terrible."_

_"Bad fucking dream. Damn storms outside. What's the red ribbon in it?"_

_"A pagemarker, I think. There was a red circle around the whole poem."_

_"I don't get most of that poetry shit, but let's hear it. The doc said there's a chance he can hear us."_

_"Last sound, the world going out without a breath:_   
_Too proud to cry, too frail to check the tears,_   
_And caught between two nights, blindness and death._

_O deepest wound of all that he should die_   
_On that darkest day. oh, he could hide_   
_The tears out of his eyes, too proud to cry._   
_Until I die he will not leave my side."_


	5. Of Unremember Snows and Skies

_"Yo partner."_

_"Thought Tseng told you to go home, Reno."_

_"Nah, got evicted. Forgot to pay the rent."_

_"Go to my place then. Get some sleep."_

_"Remember the Ancient? She told Strife once that Rufus Shinra was a man no one had ever seen bleed or cry or some shit like that."_

_"Reno."_

_"That's not true, you know. He used to cry when he had that Geostigma shit. Never made a sound, but I saw him cry twice. Used to have nightmares. Bad ones."_

_"When was the last time you slept?"_

_"The bad ones were bad, but the worst ones were where he would wake up in them and find that we'd all jumped fucking ship too. Woke me up one night gasping and panting for breath, that black shit choking the life out of him but he was more afraid that we'd fucking leave him than he was of strangling."_

_"When was the last time you slept, Reno?"_

_"Awww shit. I don't remember. I got an hour or so last night before the storms woke me up. Before that, fuck if I remember. Give me another potion or the right pills, and I can go for days. I'm going to get him, Rude. I'm going to take Rufus' shotgun, shove it in his face and fucking laugh when I pull the trigger."_

_"Look, here's my keys. Marius is at the door. Have him take you to my place. I have beer in the fridge for you."_

_"Did I ever tell you that I don't know why he ended things?"_

_"No. I just thought... you two... I don't know."_

_"I came in one day, and he was sitting there with his hand bandaged. I thought it was that Geostigma shit, but he'd cut his hand doing something. He drew his shotgun and told me to get out before he shot me. No explanation, no nothing. Just ' **get out before I shoot you** ', and he meant it, partner. He meant it. From that day six months ago until now, he hasn't said a word to me. That thing with Reeve was the closest he's let me get in six... fucking... months. And he got shot."_

 

The rose laying in his desk drawer when he opened it had been a surprise. The shotgun shells he'd been wanting were not. Some people gave each other love letters or trinkets. He and Reno gave each other weaponry or parts for their weapons. Rufus had been complaining last night that he hadn't been able to get any Tungsten shot shells at his usual supplier last night to Reno. Picking one up, he restrained the grin that wanted to rise. Instead, he drew out Lucille, his shotgun, and carefully loaded her. Sliding the weapon away, he picked up the thorned rose to study it. An odd gift from Reno. Maybe there was a tiny explosive in the barely closed bud.

When a through inspection revealed nothing, Rufus was even further puzzled.

Lifting the rose to inhale the scent, he could catch hints of burnt cordite, the smell of a gun recently fired. Typical. The opening of his office door interrupted his trying to work out this mystery.

"Rufus!"

There were quite a few things that set Rufus Shinra's teeth on edge, and being called by his first name by anyone other than those he had given permission to do so and even they would never do so in a business setting. Unfortunately, this fool was the daughter of a business associate and thus earned the right to not be the first person he tested out his new shells on. Rufus did make a note that whichever secretary was screening who came through his door was going to be finding new employment tomorrow. The vaguest suggestion of a smile came to his lips as he leaned back in his chair, refusing to rise for her like she probably expected him to. "Good afternoon, Inei. What brings you to Shin-Ra?"

Inei Sharif was the stereotypical image of a bimbo in Rufus' mind. Unfortunately, that stupidity was coupled with an animal cunning that could make her mildly dangerous at times. Prancing over, she sat on the edge of his desk, simpering and giggling at him as she patted his arm. She never realized how close she came to seeing just how fast on the draw Rufus Shinra really was. While contemplating her murder, Rufus did take the time to notice that she'd coloured her hair a brazen scarlet shade and was covering her mud brown eyes with some sort of blue contacts. It wasn't a pretty look on her in his opinion.

"Oh you! You know I came to see you, Rufus! Daddy is down in legal going over some _boring_ contracts, so I said I'd come up here and see you. Why don't we go to lunch and you can show a lady a good time?"

Rufus' smile grew a little sharper as he held back from informing her that she'd have to show him a lady first. The rose in his right hand spun slowly through his fingers, the thorns barely scratching against his skin. "I can't. I have quite a few things to do. Perhaps some other time."

Inei merely giggled, patting his arm again as she scooted closer to him. Rufus made a note to have his desk thoroughly sanitized before he finished his afternoon work. "Silly Rufus. Oh! Do you have a disc player in here? I have to show you something! You'll simply _die_!"

Rufus waved lazily towards the player against the wall. Despite her best wiggling attempts, he ignored her as she loaded up the player with some small disc. When she perched on the arm of his chair, Rufus had to remind himself that if he shot the daughter of one of Shin-Ra's biggest contract holders that the company would suffer, he sat up enough to escape her touch and see what was on the screen. The rose that he had been turning through his fingers came to a halt, fingers winding tightly around the thorned stem. He didn't notice the stings of pain as they punched into his skin. 

On the television screen was Reno and the daughter of one of Shin-Ra's other contract holders. Clothing was already being stripped away, flashes of tongue all too clear as Reno began to lower to his knees. The time/date stamp in the cornre read two days ago. Rufus' free hand was steady as he reached for the remote and turned the thing off.

"I fail to see why that would interest me," he told her, ignoring the wetness creeping between the fingers of his other hand.

"Oh Rufus! That's what I love about you. You just don't care. It's absolutely _ruin_ Lera! She's engaged to that Wutian exporter's son, and of course he'll pull out when he finds out she's been cheating on him. Let's see her be so high and mighty at the next ball when this gets out!"

Her laughter was like spinning razorblades in his head, a sound that he was sure if she kept making, he'd lose control and kill her. Luckily for both of them, her phone ringing interrupted. After a few pouts and a sulk, she flounced out of his office saying that her Daddy needed her downstairs.

When the door shut behind her, Rufus opened his hand and studied the now bloodied rose lying in the middle of his torn palm. Picking it up with his good hand, he tossed it aside into the trashcan. The few thorns that had broken off were picked out just as carefully. Opening his bottom desk drawer, he pulled out the first aid kit and began disinfecting and bandaging his hand. What he didn't allow himself to do was think.

_My tears are like the quiet drift_   
_Of petals from some magic rose;_   
_And all my grief flows from the rift_   
_Of unremembered skies and snows._

He picked up his pen and pulled the first of the stack of papers towards him. Shutting down was easy. After a half-hour, he picked up his telephone and dialed Tseng's number.

"Tseng, I want Reno and Rude taken off the current and all future guard shifts."

To Tseng's credit, there was only the smallest pause, but it expressed all of the man's surprise. "Sir?"

"I want different bodyguards assigned to me immediately. I don't care who, but not Reno or Rude. If I require air transportation from one place to another, I would prefer that Erik be my pilot," Rufus said calmly, signing another paper and setting it aside.

"May I ask why, Mr President?"

"No, you may not."

There was another pause from the Wutian's end, this one brimming with disapproval instead of surprise. "Mr President, I -"

"Tseng, now. I do not want Reno or Rude to be my bodyguards or to be assigned to any future missions in which I will present from this time until I say otherwise. Am I understood?"

"Mr Pres-"

"Am I understood?"

The telephone line was fairly humming with Tseng's upset. In his present mood, Rufus was in no mood to deal with it or care. When something failed him, he cut it off and cast it away. 

"Very well, Mr President."

Setting the handset back in the cradle, Rufus pulled the next contract towards him and began studying it.

_"Reno, go to my place. Get some sleep."_

_"I can't. Don't you get it? He's afraid of us leaving him. If he wakes up, and I'm not here, what's he going to think?"_

_"You haven't slept in four days. You're starting to lose it. Just… what if we push that empty bed into here beside his. Will you sleep then?"_

_"You'll wake me up if he comes to?"_

_"I promise."_

_"All right, yo. Let's get it in here."_


	6. Then There Was Hope

_"Hey, Reno?"_

_"Hrm? I'm awake. Need to get up anyways, Elena."_

_"I brought you some coffee. Rude said to tell you that he was heading home and if you needed a place to crash, go there."_

_"Thanks. Ahh, coffee. Any change?"_

_"The doctors said no. His eyes were open earlier, but you know what they said about that."_

_"Yeah, yeah. Involuntary shit. He doesn't track or whatever the hell it was they called it. It's not a sleeping or waking cycle or whatever the fuck they called it."_

_"It's better than nothing."_

_"It's shit is what it is. You know how pissed he'd be to know that one of those docs dared say they thought he was in a vegetative coma?"_

_"He'd be reaching for his shotgun before the words were out."_

_"He's going to wake up, and the first thing he'll probably do is dock all our pay for sitting around on our arses like this."_

 

Rufus leaned against the car, pressing a hand to his forehead. The headache was back, and those voices were speaking again. He could make out words once in awhile, but the more he tried to concentrate, the worse his headache got.

"Boss?"

"I'm fine," Rufus replied automatically, straightening and fixing his tie as he glanced at Reno and Rude. Both of them looked concerned, and he felt a moment of annoyance at his body failing him in this way. The Geostigma had been cured only to leave this in its wake, some strange condition that left him with mild auditory and olfactory hallucinations. The other day he had been walking around smelling vanilla for some reason. The day before that it was sandalwood. The whole day he'd gone out of his way to avoid Tseng, thinking the man had been at one of the Wutain shrines where they burnt the stuff with prayers for loved one's safety. It had been embarrassing to realize he was the only one hearing and smelling things.

"Sir, the road is blocked by snow and a downed tree. We're going to have to turn back," Rude said quietly, tilting his head towards the mess of tangled and snowy limbs blocking the roadway.

Rufus shook his head. "We're going even if we have to walk."

"Boss, we can't. We can't go over that shit without breaking a few bones, and there's no doctor in the world worth that. We'll get a crew out here and clean it up. We can come back tomorrow or have Erik and Rod bring him in."

Rufus frowned at the mess blocking the road. It didn't make sense to him. None of this did. It felt nearly manufactured, as if someone were purposely trying to keep him out. The road was neat and clear right up to this point. Lifting a hand to rub against his eyes, Rufus pushed the paranoia back down. Ever since Reeve's big PR event, it had been getting worse as well. There were moments when he caught exchanged looks among his people or a watchfulness in them that made him think his own Turks were plotting against him. 

"What about across the lake?" Rufus asked as he lowered his hand, watching Reno and Rude closely.

For a moment, for a bare split second, he _knew_ that he caught them trading looks of surprise and then anger before they were shaking their heads. 

"We can't cross the lake, Sir. The ice could be thin," Rude began.

"I don't know about you, but I'm not strong enough to pull Rude's ass outta there if he goes through," Reno finished.

That sensation of disquiet had returned in Rufus Shinra. Granted, Reno and Rude often operated as one unit, sometimes sharing what seemed like a low level telepathy between them, but finishing each other's sentences was taking it a bit far. Them balking from doing something he asked was new as well. The entire situation made him uneasy, but he knew that if he went to Medical at Shin-Ra and said anything, they would put it off as whatever this new illness was.

It was beginning to feel more like the Turks were his wardens than his bodyguards.

"I have to get to this doctor, and you two will help me get there. If you don't, then stay in the car, and I will return when I can," Rufus said tersely. "I wasn't aware cowardice was a Turk condition."

Reno took a step towards him, stopping shy of touching him. "It's our job to look out for you, stop you if you're doing something dangerous to yourself. This is dangerous. That ice could be a half-inch thick or two feet thick. We don't know. Let's just go back to Shin-Ra, get a crew out here, and we'll come see this doc tomorrow. What's so important about what he does that you have to go see him right now anyways?"

Rufus stopped at that. He couldn't remember why it was so important to see this doctor. He couldn't even remember who had referred him to this one or what his name was. Another sharp pain came from behind his left eye, headache flaring. Coldness settled in the pit of his stomach as Rufus realized that he couldn't even remember the ride out here. It was as if they'd just appeared here. Disquiet grew into the beginnings of real fear. All he clearly knew was that he had to get to this doctor. That was all that mattered.

"Then we'll take it slow," Rufus said, holding down on his growing sense of alarm. "We need to get across."

Fifteen minutes later found them walking across the lake, Reno and Rude in the lead with Rufus a few steps behind them. There had been rope in the car's trunk thankfully enough, one that was now wound around everyone's waists in case one fell through, the other two could pull him out. On the other side of the frozen lake, they could see a small house, smoking winding placidly out of a chimney. There was a small pier the snowy ground met the ice, a boat locked in the ice itself instead of taken out for the season. For the smallness of the cottage sized house, the boat was too big, falling a hair short of yacht size. For someone to have left it out to be damaged by the ice was unthinkable. Who would be stupid enough? Something about it was familiar though, Rufus' eyes going back to it. 

"The Lady Fair," Rufus said, stopping short.

"Boss?"

"What?"

Rufus felt as if all the spit in his mouth had dried up. The fear in him leaped up, his mouth tasting of copper. "It's the Lady Fair. That boat. My mother used to like to sail sometimes before I was born, but after she died, my father only took me out in it once. I fell over the side and nearly drowned. Veld ended up jumping in and pulling me out. My father had it junked."

He could feel Reno's hand on his arm, Rude starting towards him. To his eyes, their faces changed, becoming blank masks without any real features. There was only the suggestion of noses, no eyes, and only a line for lips. Stumbling backwards as he shoved the thing that had been Reno from him, he was already drawing his shotgun to keep them back when the ice gave way with a loud crack. Lucille, his shotgun, went tumbling from his fingers as he plunged downwards into the cold water.

_"What's wrong with him?"_

_"Is he having a seizure?"_

_"Get the doctor, Elena. Boss! Rufus! We're here!"_

_Rufus blinked, trying to clear water from his face only to find that there was none. Blinding light was shining down in his face, a shadowy figure leaning over him. He raised his arm to try to defend himself. There was none of his usual strength behind it, his entire body feeling weak and barely responsive. When his hand closed over someone's forearm, he couldn't even grip his fingers around it. His muscles felt too weak._

_"Rufus? Can you hear me?"_

_The light from above was blotted out some as the figure loomed over him. Tendrils of something touched against his face, Rufus trying to bat them away with his other hand only to find it held down. Turning his head, he stared in dumb shock at the tube of an IV that was taped down to it. Fingers pressed against his chin, turning his head back to the man above him._

_"Rufus, it's me. It's Reno. Elena is getting the doctor. Just stay with us, okay?"_

_He barely recognized that voice as being Reno's. It was too serious, too worried to be Reno's. Straining to focus on the Turk's face, he finally realized that the 'tendrils' was Reno's hair, the redhead having left them loose instead of bound back. They were in a hospital._

_"Iii… Iiiss?" he asked, tongue not cooperating with him on forming the word._

_"Eyes? What's wrong with your eyes? Can you see me?" Reno asked, the fingers on his chin moving up to touch lightly under his eyes._

_"No… Ree-noo." Why couldn't he speak right? What was going on? How had he gotten here? "Iish. Lake."_

_Reno shook his head, freeing his arm from Rufus' weak grasp and winding their fingers together even as his other hand slid back to Rufus' cheek. "What lake? You were at Reeve's event, and you got shot, Rufus. They poisoned you, and we're trying to find a cure. You're been in a coma for almost a week now."_

_Rufus stared up at him blankly. He couldn't remember going to Reeve's thing. The room seemed to be filling up with people all of a sudden, someone shining a light into his eyes. Elena's voice was there somewhere, her mentioning his name. When he turned his head to get away from whoever was trying to look in his eyes, he blurrily saw Tseng there at his bedside._

_"Mr President, you have worried us all."_

_The best Rufus could manage was a weak smile, his fingers trying to tighten around Reno's and managing only a light squeeze._

_"Mr Shinra, please, hold still so I can see into your eyes."_

"RUFUS!

_"Rufus? Rufus? Hang on! Don't go back…"_

"RUFUS! Wake up!"

_"Ree-"_

"-no?"

"He's awake, Rude!"

When Rufus opened his eyes, he found himself slung over Rude's massive shoulder and covered in little more than the Turks' jackets and shirts.

"Give him to me, Rude. Get the car started and the heater on high!"

The next thing he knew, he was in the backseat of the limo with a bare-chested Reno rubbing at his nude skin with his and Rude's shirts. The vehicle's engine roared to life, the heaters spitting out cold air that was gradually warming.

"Be fucking lucky if you don't get frostbite and your dick falls off! Don't you ever do that to me again!" Reno snarled at him.

Shivering so hard that his teeth chattered, Rufus had to keep back the grin. Letting Reno get away with being insolent was never a good idea. "What… happened…?"

Tossing aside the shirts, Reno dragged his and Rude's jackets around Rufus, wrapping him in them as best he could. When their eyes met, Rufus could see that the Turk was equally infuriated and scared. It wasn't a look he was used to seeing on Reno. "You fell through that gods-be-damned ice just like Rude and I said we would, and we had to haul you back out. When we got you up, you weren't breathing. We had to strip you down out there and get you in our clothes, and it's pretty fucking cold out there, Rufus! Rude and I about had to run the hundred meter dash in our underwear!"

Feeling like he was about to shake apart from shivering, that did it for Rufus. Laughter that was more hysteria than amusement came from him although all he had was the mental picture of Reno (who he knew for a fact wore no underwear) and Rude (who was wearing a pair of heart covered boxers) running across the ice. Reno huffed at him and laid his head in Rufus' lap, wrapping his arms around Rufus' legs and holding tightly to him. Trying to get his laughter under control, Rufus' shaking fingers slid into the Turk's hair.

"Tseng would have had my balls for a doorstop if something had happened to you, ungrateful bastard," Reno muttered against his thigh.

"No... if they didn't... freeze off first," Rufus said between his jaw clenching with chattering teeth.

"Prick."

Letting go of Rufus' legs, he shifted the heater vents to blow right on Rufus and knocked on the window between them and Rude. "Let's go, partner. We need to get him to Medical."

Rufus pulled the jacket tighter around himself, about to protest the very idea of going to Medical with nothing on but Rude's jacket when he heard the voice again. 

_"No! Wake up, Rufus!"_

Reno's hand was gentle on his leg, the half-dressed Turk still on his knees in front of him. "Rufus?"

The headache was back, pounding in his temples. What had they been doing out here in the first place? Why had they been on the lake of all places? He remembered going through the ice, but for some reason, he kept thinking he had been somewhere else instead of in the water. Reno had been there. Tseng and Elena as well. "Just my headache, Reno. I'm fine."

"We'll see what Medical says about that," Reno said, curling his arms around Rufus' waist with his head in the man's lap again. "You fucking scared ten years off my life."

_"Did he recognize you, Mr Reno?"_

_"Yeah, he did. He said my name and something about ice."_

_"It's not unusual for patients in comas to wake up disoriented, especially in cases of brain injury. While President Shinra's coma is being caused by a poison, we can't discount the eventuality or possibility of brain damage. He moved his arms and what I managed to see of his eyes tells me that he was lucid as well as in control of himself. However, comas aren't like books or movies show them. It takes a long time to recover."_

_"What do you mean, doctor?"_

_"What I mean, Mr Tseng, is that waking up is a good sign. He recognized someone, he spoke, and he tried to move. If he's recovering, he will wake up again. This could be the beginning of him emerging. With luck, he'll begin to go into waking and sleeping cycles which will point more towards him coming out of this coma. One of you four is here at all times, yes?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Yeah."_

_"Yes, doctor."_

_"Good. Keep talking to him or reading to him even if he's asleep. Play music softly if you nap here. Keep something going to stimulate his mind into coming back 'awake'. If he shows signs of being awake, he may stir towards a sound. Even involuntary motion is good motion. Are you all any closer to finding out what poison was used?"_

_"We believe we have the man who manufactured the poison close to capture."_

_"I'm not one of you, but in my professional opinion, I would hurry if you could."_

_"Understood."_

_"He couldn't speak right. He was having trouble with it."_

_"Once again, that's not unheard of Mr Reno. Coma patients generally come emerge in slow stages. Some might only be able to moan or grunt at first. That he was able to piece together words, disjointed as they might have been, is a good sign."_


	7. The Day He Was Born

_"I remember the day he was born."_

_"Shit, Tseng. I didn't know you were that old."_

_"Shut up, partner. I can remember the day he was born too. We went up to the Upper Plate to see the fireworks."_

_"Hey! I don't need you and Tseng ganging up on me, Rude. Yeah, I can remember it too. I didn't see 'em myself, but I saw them on the television, and even below the Plate, the reflection of them could be seen."_

_"As I was saying, I remember the day Rufus Shinra was born. President Shinra had fireworks and everyone at Shin-Ra was given a holiday with pay. There had been reports for weeks that Mrs Shinra would give birth at any time. I remember being sent down to the store at least ten times a day for people placing bets on whether it would be a boy or girl."_

_"Tseng! You used to run numbers?"_

_"I wasn't always a Turk, Reno. I had come from Wutai with my mother half a year before that after my father died being forced to serve in the Wutai army, and I hadn't grasped yet that there was no royalty here. I was only ten or eleven at the time, and to me, the Shinras were that royalty. My mother avidly followed everything they did, gossiping with the other Wutain women in the complex about what dress Mrs Shinra was wearing or what Upper Plate restaurant President Shinra had taken them to. When Rufus was born, she cried at hearing it was a healthy baby boy. I recall that very clearly. I thought she had been hurt at work. No, she had been crying for happiness that they had been given a boy, as if he had been born to everyone and not just the Shinras. She even paid ten gil we couldn't spare for the magazine that had carried the first pictures of him."_

_"I remember that. My mother did the same thing. She and her friends sat on the doorstep for hours going over each one, crowing about how precious he was with all that blonde hair and big blue eyes."_

_"And yet she got a bald son of her own, eh Rude?"_

_"It did make me wish I had blue eyes for awhile. When Mrs Shinra died, she went to the public ceremony, crying as if it had been her own sister."_

_"Mine as well. She dressed in black for a month and even mourned her according to our customs. I met Rufus Shinra himself four years after that."_

_"How did you get into the organization so early anyways, Tseng? Veld once said you were only fifteen or sixteen when you started the Academy."_

_"That was Fate's doing. I had come up from running numbers by then. Instead, I was making deliveries. One day..."_

 

"Veld, I keep hearin' those voices."

Veld glanced at the boy, shaking his head slowly. "You mean 'hearing'. I've told you before that you need to take care with what you say and how. It was the radio, Rufus, nothing more."

Rufus Shinra nodded and shrugged. Most days were like this for the five year old. Veld took him wherever he had to go according to the schedule, while the rest of the Turks stayed near his father. Things had gotten steadily worse with the war, Wutai still taking heavy losses, but Shin-Ra was now as well. His father kept saying that the war would be won any day now, but he'd been saying that all year. Just last week, the old head of the Department of Urban Development had been assassinated. The new head was another useless man according to his father, but the assistant department head would soon be ready to take over. His father had been saying last night that this assistant, Reeve Tuesti, might be worth something in a few years after he'd gotten more experience.

Even at his age, Rufus was sure his father didn't realize how much he overheard or how closely he listened to everything that went on.

With the whispering voices gone, Rufus gave them no more thought. Today they were supposed to be going to some ribbon-cutting or another. His father was taking a separate route, having said something about not wanting both of them in the same car and thus an easy target. Yawning, Rufus settled back in his seat, watching the landscape slide by.

He had almost been asleep when the world turned upside down. Jolted awake, he clutched onto his seatbelt, the car lifting up at the nose and tumbling backwards as if it had been thrown by a giant's hand. All thoughts of being a big boy and unafraid were swept away, the boy screaming as glass broke and metal crumpled around him. Somewhere in the noise he could hear Veld saying something or yelling at someone. A hand clutched onto his arm, holding him even as he was thrown against his seatbelt again. There was another crash of glass and steel as the car settled on its roof, spinning slowly.

Hanging upside, Rufus didn't open his eyes at first, keeping them clenched shut. If he ignored this, maybe it would all go away. It was a nightmare. It had to be. The hand holding onto his arm had fallen away, and everything was quiet all of a sudden. The blood rushing to his head and making him dizzy finally convinced the child that opening his eyes was a necessity. 

Glass laid everywhere beneath him, Veld lying crumpled among it. Blood was slowly leaking from around the Director's head and soaking into the black ceiling material of the limo. At first, all Rufus could do was hang there upside down and stare. Veld was more than a man to him, a stand-in father at times and a protector at others. People like that weren't supposed to get hurt or… he refused to let that thought finish. Veld couldn't be dead. Ever.

Thumbing the latch on his belt, Rufus yelped as gravity took hold and dropped him down. Glass cut his hands and knees as he landed, the stings going ignored as he fearfully reached out for the Director's shoulder, shaking him gently. "Veld? Veld?"

From the front of the car, Rufus heard a groan and the screech of the driver's door being opened. There was a thump as the driver crawled his way out and then peered into the backseat. Rufus' fingers clutched tightly in the fabric of Veld's suit coat, shaking him harder. When he met the driver's eyes, he struggled to speak. Tears were stupid and not going to help. He was a big boy, not a baby. "Help him. You have to help him!"

The driver's wide eyes flicked between the boy and the downed man, moving back to Rufus' face. The next moment, the driver was struggling to his feet and running as best he could, leaving them alone.

"Oh please, Veld! Wake up!" Rufus begged, shaking him uselessly. Surely the driver was just going to get help, right?

The loud report of a gunshot from up the street froze that idea. Crouching there beside Veld, Rufus lifted his head enough to peer over the seats and out the front window. Cracks wound from one side to the other on it, that being the only window that didn't shatter in the glass. After all the money his father had spent on bullet-proof glass and armour for the limos, he was going to have a fit when he saw this destruction.

Unless his father had purposely not given him one of the more secure ones.

"I'm not going to think about that," Rufus whispered to himself, watching the road ahead worriedly. Someone up there had fired a shot. Already starting to dissemble the event, something he would become a master at later in life, Rufus glanced back down to Veld. As gently as he could, he turned the man over. Blood streaked Veld's face, a long cut leaving half his cheek hanging from his face in a bloody flap. Another was hidden by his hair, blood sheeting down from it when Rufus tried to clear some of the gore off his face. Swallowing down the nausea, Rufus began going through Veld's pockets for his cellphone. If he could find it, then he could call the others and have them come make everything right. When he found it, his worst fears were confirmed. Three of the buttons were falling off, the front of it split by a long crack. 

Another sharp gunshot came from up the street. Creeping backwards, Rufus grabbed ahold of Veld's jacket and began to pull. Slowly, painfully slow, he got the man's body to move, dragging it out the broken back window. Under his breath, Rufus chanted out a whispering litany that he'd later have no memory of saying. "Please be okay, Veld. Please be okay, Veld. Please be-"

_"I remember hearing about that. Wutain assassins blew up Rufus' car when he was on the way to the opening of one of the new reactors."_

_"Damn, Rude. You are old."_

_"Shut up, Reno. I was only about eight myself, and it was all over the news for a week. What happened then, Tseng?"_

_"As I said, I was engaged in less than legal activities at the time. Where the limousine blew up was less than two blocks from the flat my mother and I shared with her sister, her husband, and their four kids."_

_"You didn't tell us you lived in the slums, Tseng!"_

_"Reno, stop interrupting me. I didn't say I lived in the slums. I lived in the Wutain section of Midgar. I suppose it could be classified as slums technically since we did have eight people living in a two bedroom flat, but it wasn't as crime-ridden an area as your slums were. The local _tong_ ran the area, and they tended to take care of their own."_

_"Yeah, yo, and you were runnin' numbers for them."_

_"As I said, I had finished up early and was heading home..."_

Sitting Veld up as best he could, Rufus pressed his handkerchief as hard as he dared to the man's cheek. He winced as a finger accidentally slipped through and touched the man's teeth inside his mouth. Gagging, Rufus dug his teeth into his lower lip, willing himself not to pass out. Veld needed him. He couldn't afford to.

The sound of footsteps from the other side of the shattered car helped him choke down the last of his sickness. Someone was coming. Rufus' fingers fumbled at Veld's jacket, searching for the firearm he knew the man always wore. At his age, no one had bothered to teach Rufus yet how to handle a weapon, any weapon. At five, he was more likely to shoot himself rather than someone else. Dragging it out of his holster, Rufus was surprised at how heavy the gun was, nothing like the little toy ones some of his playmates had. Scooting as close to Veld as he could, he tried to make his shaking hands hold onto the gun without pulling the trigger accidentally.

Whoever happened to be out there wasn't going to take them without a fight.

 

_"And?"_

_"And he very nearly shot my head off when I came around the cornre of the car."_

_"Holy shit! A little five year old got the drop on you, Tseng?"_

_"I wasn't expecting to find an armed child there or even anyone conscious. That car was torn up terribly from the explosion."_

_"Wow."_

_"For the rest of my life, that's how I'll remember him: a bloodied little boy clutching a gun that was twice his size in both his hands and trying to threaten me with it."_

_"I'm never getting that image outta my head, yo."_

_"Do remember that he grew quite a bit and traded that handgun for a shotgun he fires one-handed now and rarely misses with. At no point did I say I thought Rufus Shinra was frightened either. He tried to take me prisoner there and then."_

_"You're shitting me!"_

_"Language, Reno. No, I am not. He..."_

 

The man came around the side of the car, slowly crouching down to look down. It was that action that saved his life. As soon as Rufus saw the black hair, darkened skin, and Wutain's features, he tried to tighten his grip on the gun. The finger curled around the trigger shifted, the gun firing. The bullet zinged off the metal of the car's side, shattering a tail light, and ricocheted off. The man, teenager really, that Rufus had fired at gaped at him in surprise.

"Put your hands up!" Rufus shouted at him, the gun shaking in his hands. Trying to get a better grip on it, the weapon slid against his sweaty palms. The thing firing had scared him just as badly as it had this stranger.

The teenager raised his hands up as requested, looking to be about to run as well from him. Rufus ground his teeth as he fixed this Wutain with his best glare. He'd made a secretary cry with it once and was rather proud of the usual effect it had on people. "Don't move, or I'll shoot you!"

The teenager nodded solemnly, keeping his hands up and not moving in the least.

Veld groaned as he opened his eyes, trying to sit up before his body informed him that it was a bad idea. "Rufus?"

"I'm here, Veld," Rufus whispered as he kept the gun on the intruder. "Your phone is broke."

"Damn."

 

_"I saw my first Turk that day too. Director Veld to be exact."_

_"Making a tour of the upper ranks, weren't you, Tseng?"_

_"He was hurt, badly. I had been a small child when the war between Shin-Ra and Wutai started, but I saw my share of people wounded that were brought in to our village. He looked as bad as any of them."_

 

Veld's eyes moved to the Wutain teenager, studying him through the haze of blood that clung to his eyelashes. Spittle full of pinkish bubbles slid down the Director's chin. The man wiped it away with a glance as he reached for the gun Rufus held. Pain lanced through his midsection. The bloody bubbles already told him that the he had at least one broken rib that had dug into his lung, but from the pain, there could be more than one. He was bleeding internally, and from the look on the stranger's face, he knew it too. Trying to move had told Veld that he had a broken leg as well, not to mention the concussion that was giving him a headache that pulsed with the beat of his heart. That had to be ignored now as he reached for the gun in Rufus' hands, plucking it out of them and shifting the barrel back towards the teenager.

"Who are you?" Veld asked in Wutain, gesturing with the gun towards Tseng. He might be in agony, but he'd put a bullet in that kid's head before he'd get to Rufus.

The stranger was startled momentarily by one of these people speaking his language, recovering quickly and lifting his head with an imperious pride. "I am Tseng."

Veld smiled, a cold look that would have sent his underlings running to find something to do other than be in his path. "And are you one of _them_?"

Offense flashed on Tseng's face, the teenager's chin jerking to the side in anger before he covered it. "No. I am of Midgar. I wouldn't bring a war into the city. They're after…"

The teenager stopped there, glancing at Rufus and back to Veld.

Veld thumbed the hammer back on his gun, voice low with a growl that had an alarming clogged sound to him. He was bleeding out inside. This kid might not be one of them, but it would only be second or minutes before they were here and took Rufus. "Don't say who he is. Are you one of them?"

"You already asked me that," Tseng replied, glancing at Rufus who was watching the two of them in puzzlement. Wutain wasn't one of the languages that his tutors had tried to teach him yet. "I said no."

Gunfire erupted from up the street, all three of them flinching. Rufus seized hold of Veld's arm and tried to bury his face against the man's sleeve. Veld's eyes never left Tseng. Coughing out a mouthful of bloody spit, Veld nodded, more to himself than either of the kids. "You live around here?"

Tseng nodded slowly, eyes moving between where the noise had come from and back to Veld. "Yes, two blocks up."

"Anyone home?"

"Not at this hour."

Veld drew his arm out of Rufus' grasp, feeling his shoulder crack. Another broken bone or it was knocked out of joint. Either way, he bit back the pain and turned his gaze onto Rufus, deadly seriousness in his eyes. Switching back to their language from Wutain, he nudged Rufus lightly towards Tseng. "Go with Tseng here, Rufus. He'll take you somewhere safe. Listen to him like you would me. Do you have my phone?"

 

_"Veld told him to go with you? What the hell was he thinking? No offense, Tseng, but you were a Wutain on the street who just happened to find them right after a bomb had gone off under their car!"_

_"Veld was very good at judging people, Reno, and you have to remember that he was most likely dying of his injuries at that point. Or rather believed himself to be. They later found out his lungs was punctured in four places, both collarbones broken, his leg broken so badly that the pieces splintered out of his skin, a major concussion, and a fractured vertebrae. The seatbelts had been sabotaged, meant to break when the car flipped by being cut to hanging on by just a thread under the seat. It should have killed anyone inside if the driver had gotten up the speed he was supposed to be going at when it went off. Rufus' held because he was so light. Veld's snapped and when that car tumbled, it threw him all around it."_

_"I always wondered how he got that scar on his face."_

_"Now you know."_

_"Shit, man. It was still a huge risk."_

_"True. I could have been lying. He took the best option that was set before him. Regardless..."_

 

Rufus wanted to cling to Veld's arm, wanted to stay with the Director. "I can't leave you! What if they come? Who is this Tseng? Why?"

Veld frowned at Rufus, his torn up face made a mask of horrors as he did. "What is the third rule of a kidnapping situation, Rufus?"

Rufus glanced down and back up to him, willing himself not to cry. "Under no circumstances am I to attempt to help my Turk guards or disobey them thinking that I might know better."

"Exactly. Tseng, take off your jacket. Rufus, you put it on. Pull the hood down over your head and hide your face as best you can," Veld said quietly. From up the street came another spat of gunfire, closer than it had been before. "You know a shortcut to your place, Tseng?"

The teenager quickly stripped off his hooded sweatshirt, helping Rufus get it on him. It hung down nearly to the five year old's knees. Drawing up the hood, he tied it quickly. From the shadows of it, Rufus watched them in real fear. If they left, and the people with guns got here, they would kill Veld or torture him. He'd heard all sorts of scary stories from Scarlet about what the Wutain terrorists did to their prisoners.

Veld seemed to read his thoughts as he narrowed his glazed eyes at Rufus. "Listen to him. I mean it. Keep my phone even if it is broken. Tseng, in an hour call the number Rufus gives you. Ask for Veld or Wyatt. Understand?"

Tseng nodded, crouching down to hear Veld clearly. The man's voice was getting to be little more than a watery whisper interrupted by those blood bubbles. "Veld or Wyatt, one hour."

Veld nodded, head falling back as he shifted his grip on his gun. "Go. Keep him safe."

Rufus didn't fight with Tseng when the Wutain lifted him up in his arms, dodging down the alleyway beside the crash and into the winding backstreets of Little Wutai.

"Keep your head down against my neck and shoulder," Tseng whispered to him. "Put your arms around my neck and hold on. If anyone asks, I'm going to say you're my cousin, Komeu, and that the school called me to come get you because you're sick. Don't say anything and don't look up."

Rufus nodded as he burrowed against Tseng's body, winding his arms around the man's neck like he was told. Numb with shock, he couldn't think clearly, couldn't make this stranger he had been about to shoot a few minutes ago go back and get Veld. At his age, he couldn't reason out that getting Veld to go with them would have slowed them down considerably and put them all in danger. All he could comprehend was that they had left someone he cared for behind to face death or something worse.

Rufus didn't look up as he heard doors opening and closing, Tseng calling out something in that language he didn't recognize. When no one answered, Tseng gently sat him down. Opening his eyes finally, Rufus glanced around. They were in a bedroom of some sort, five beds that were little more than cots lined up one next to the other. Sunlight tried to push its way through a tiny window on the far wall that was spotless. The room itself was filled with poor furniture, but it was clean even up to the best standards. 

"Are you all right?" Tseng asked him. "Nothing broken or any wounds?"

Struggling his way out of the sweatshirt, Rufus shook his head miserably. He wished in that moment he could cry, could be just a frightened little boy instead of the Shinra heir and a little man who had to carry on no matter what. Self-pity wasn't doing him any good though. It was useless and better cast aside. "No, I'm fine."

Nodding, Tseng began folding the sweatshirt, setting it on one of the other cots. "It took us longer to get here than I thought. There were too many people out there. News travels fast down here."

Rufus didn't answer, something up on the ceiling catching his attention. He stared in wonder at what he found there. Birds made of paper bobbed and floated on whatever breeze was up there, their colours spanning all shades of the rainbow. Some had sparkles or little bits of shiny stuff pasted to them. One was a long as his arm while another looked tiny enough to sit on the tip of a finger. "Wow…"

Tseng glanced upwards, a grin quirking his lips. "My little cousin makes those cranes with the spare papers he finds around."

"I've never seen anything like them."

"It's origami, something I doubt you would see much of here. It's an art of folding paper. See?" Tseng reached upwards, taking one of the birdlike creations off the nearly invisible threads that were keeping them up. It was a brilliant shade of purple, tiny bits of some shiny plastic pasted on for eyes. Setting it in Rufus' cupped hands, he pointed to the lines where it had been folded. 

"It's beautiful. They look like they're flying."

"Komeu learned it from his mother. I made that one, and he had to decorate it with eyes. You're not supposed to use anything but paper, but he likes to draw on them or paste things onto them," Tseng said with a shrug, preferring to keep the child's mind on something other than what had just happened and he had seen. "Go ahead and keep that one if you like. It's almost been an hour. What was that number?"

 

_"He still has that, Tseng. It's on a string over his desk at his place."_

_"I know. I'm surprised it made it all these years. For future reference, I would also prefer not to know what is at Rufus' private home, Reno."_

_"Wasn't like I mentioned the handcuffs in his nightstand drawer!"_

 

Tseng kept his eyes on Rufus as he punched in the number. His mother wasn't going to be happy anyone had used the telephone when the charges came due, but he supposed this was as good an emergency as any. 

The phone was picked up on the other end, no one saying anything but the line itself open. A double click was heard, but nothing was said still.

"Hello?" Tseng said.

"What?" The voice was cold and female, something about it intimidating to a teenager that had suddenly found himself in possession of what was arguably Shin-Ra Company's greatest asset.

"I'm calling for Veld," Tseng replied, watching Rufus pretend the little purple crane in his hand was flying. Purple, a colour of royalty, fitting for the only prince that Midgar had.

"Veld is indisposed."

"I need to speak to a Wyatt then?"

There was another click, Tseng starting to think he had been hung up on until a rough male's voice answered, an annoyed and harried sound his tone. "Wyatt here."

Tseng coughed, composing himself before speaking. "Mr Wyatt, I was told to contact you. I have someone that you're missing."

Dead silence came from the man's end, followed by another of those weird double clicks before the voice spoke again. "What do you want for his return?"

Tseng blinked. "You don't understand. I found him and the man who was with him at the car. He told me to take Ru- the little one with me and to call this number in an hour. It's been almost an hour, I think. Our clock has stopped again. The power is out."

The man snorted, cold derision in his voice when he spoke. "Haven't turned on the news, have you?"

"No, why?"

"The Wutains claim to have who you say you have. They aired a video of his execution fifteen minutes ago."

Tseng glanced again at Rufus quickly, half-convinced that he'd turn around and the boy would be gone. Relief made him nearly sick as he watched the blonde boy yawn and study his little crane some more. "That video is false then. The man who was with him-"

"Veld. His name is Veld."

"This Veld told me to take the boy and call this number in an hour for help."

"Look, pal, how do I know you're not fucking pulling my chain? You know how many crank calls we've gotten today alone?"

"Would you like to talk to him?"

Another silence followed from this Wyatt's end before he answered. "Yeah, put him on."

Covering the mouthpiece, Tseng nudged Rufus, offering him the phone. 

Rufus frowned up at Tseng, not used to or liking being touched. He'd conveniently forgotten letting Tseng carry him. "What?"

"Wyatt wishes to speak to you."

"Oh!" Rufus reached for the phone eagerly, putting it to his ear. "Wyatt?" Rufus silent for a few seconds, glancing up to Tseng briefly before speaking again. "I'm fine. Is Veld all right? You did? We heard that, but we didn't know who it was! He'll be all right though, won't he?" Another pause followed, the boy's eyes narrowed and thoughtful. "His name is Tseng, and he found me n' Veld. Uh-huh. Yeah. I'll see you then."

With that, Rufus hung up before Tseng could stop him. 

"Little one, I needed to give them the address."

Rufus grinned up at him. "They already knew where..."

Almost on cue, the front door beyond the bedroom was broken open with what sounded like a small explosion. Tseng snatched Rufus off the bed, shoving him under it. "Stay down and be quiet, no matter what."

"But..."

"Be quiet!"

Slipping over beside the closed door the bedroom, Tseng waited. Whoever this was couldn't get their hands on Rufus. That Wyatt person had made that clear that the terrorists were airing an awful video of a child being killed. They wouldn't get the real Rufus Shinra. When the door was kicked open, Tseng was on the other side from it. The barrel of a large gun came in before the person. Before they could react, Tseng seized the barrel, shoving the gun backwards and hoping to smash the stock into the face of the shooter. Real thought ceased, reacting on instinct alone. Ripping the gun out of the person's hands, he swung it around towards the next person, catching them in the throat and shoulder. He had been spinning and meaning to drive the stock into the next one's forehead when a gun pressed against the back of his head, his legs were kicked out from him a moment later and his head shoved to the floor with a knee in his back. From over his shoulder came the voice of the man from the phone. Tseng had to admit that it was a much more formidable and intimidating voice in person. "Where is Rufus Shinra?"

Tseng stared at the floor under his nose, making no reply.

The gun ground into the back of his head, the click of the hammer being pulled back loud as any explosion to Tseng's ears. "Where is he?"

"Wyatt!"

Wriggling out from under the bed with an ' _I Told You So_ ' look at Tseng, the Shinra heir ran towards the Turk, letting himself be picked up. The man on Tseng's back remained as unmovable as stone, Wyatt finally coming into view with Rufus in his arms. A cigar was held loosely in the Turk's other hand.

"This guy hurt you, kid?"

"Nope!" Rufus grinned at him, lifting up his crane for Wyatt to see. "He gave me this, and his name is Tseng. Can we go see Veld?"

"Yeah, yeah. Let him up, Rafe. Not bad, Tseng, although Sabra and Rod now reserve the right to kick your arse since you hit her with her own gun and knocked the wind out of him."

Struggling to his feet as the other Turk got off his back, Tseng darted a look at the two others that were bleeding some and looking pissed. This didn't bode well for him until Wyatt slapped him on the shoulder, nearly knocking him back down to the floor. The Turk lowered his sunglasses some, piercing blue eyes studying Tseng. "You did good today, kid. Shin-Ra might have a use for someone like you. Veld did tell me to pass on between Cure materia being applied to his face that he thought you were a good risk."

 

_"That's it?"_

_"That is it, Reno."_

_"But what happened?"_

_"They left. Shin-Ra repaired the door although I had to explain to my mother what happened. She didn't believe me at first. The next day, Wyatt returned with an offer for me to attend the Shin-Ra Military Academy. I did, and here we are today."_

_"You tell a suck story, Tseng."_

_"I will take that as a sign that you require rest to be speaking to me that way."_

**Author's Note:**

> An old story that I have reworked and will continue.


End file.
